Robin Willoughby, Share The World's Resources: "The 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be rightly lauded as a landmark in international attempts to formalize the rights and responsibilities between governments and their citizens. If we ask if the Declaration has proven a success, however, we need only glance at a few statistics; almost three billion people live in poverty on less than US$2.50 a day, and the number of hungry people actually increased this year to nearly one billion people. As the world reaped record levels of harvests in 2008, the most basic right to food is still denied to around 1 in 6 people on the planet. But how did we get to this situation?"
CONTROVERSIAL plans to build a powerful mobile phone mast near two schools have been given the green light – despite fears children will be blasted by cancerous radiation.
The new 3G mast will be placed 200 metres from Crynallt Junior and Infant schools in Cimla and 16 metres from an existing mobile phone mast.
The latter was rejected by the planning department five years ago following an 800-name petition, but it went ahead in August 2003 after the Assembly overturned the decision on appeal.
Am 17. Dezember stimmt das Europäische Parlament über zwei Gesetzesvorlagen ab – die Erneuerbare-Energien-Richtlinie sowie die Richtlinie über die Kraftstoffqualität. Beide Gesetze beinhalten umfangreiche und langfristig bis zum Jahr 2020 ausgerichtete Regelungen zu Agrosprit, die über die darin festgelegten Agrospritziele eine massive Ausweitung der Produktion von Agrokraftstoffen bedeuten.
Da die Produktion in der EU kaum noch erhöht werden kann, soll vor allem aus den Tropenländern massenhaft Agrosprit in Form von Palm-, Soja- und Jatrophaöl sowie Ethanol aus Zuckerrohr importiert werden - auf Kosten der Menschen, Regenwälder, Biodiversität und des Klimas.
Bitte nehmen Sie an der nachfolgenden Protestbriefaktion teil, und bitten Sie die AbgeordnetenINNEN des Europaparlaments, gegen diese Gesetzestexte zu stimmen, es sei denn, alle Maßnahmen, die Agrosprit fördern, können noch in letzter Minute gestrichen werden. (Start: 05.12.2008)
Alister Doyle and Anna Mudeva, Reuters: "The United States and other rich nations must pledge by the end of next year specific targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to win agreement on a U.N. climate pact, the UN's top climate official said on Tuesday. Some analysts say that President-elect Barack Obama may not be ready to set formal emissions targets for 2020 within a year, and that economic recession could delay an end-2009 deadline by 190 nations for agreement on a new UN global warming pact. 'We have to have numbers on the table from industrialized countries (by the end of 2009) otherwise the other dominoes won't fall,' Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat said during December 1-12 talks on global warming."
Agence France-Presse: "Fragments of bricks, engraved with cuneiform characters thousands of years old, lie mixed with the rubble and sandbags left by the US military on the ancient site of Babylon in Iraq. In this place, one of the cradles of civilisation, US troops in 2003-2004 built embankments, dug ditches and spread gravel to hold the fuel reservoirs needed to supply the heliport of Camp Alpha. Today, archaeologists say a year of terracing work and 18 months of military presence, with tanks and helicopters, have caused irreparable damage."
Wildlife-friendly ranchers like Larry and Bette Haverfield have worked hard to preserve the American grasslands that they own and lease. That’s why they volunteered their land for the reintroduction of the once-thought-to-be-extinct black-footed ferret.
But last week, commissioners in Logan County, Kansas put the ranchers on notice: forced prairie dog poisonings could happen as early as this Monday, December 15th -- a move that would destroy the state’s largest prairie dog town and effectively end black-footed ferret recovery in the state.
Write Kansas Governor Sebelius today and urge her to stop the needless poisonings on the prairie.
The phone mast off Smithy Lane in Bardsey back in 2003. Numerous mobile phone comapnies have attempted to erect masts around the village.
Published Date: 10 December 2008
BARDSEY residents continue to be blighted by a continuous buzzing noise they claim is coming from a mobile phone mast situated near their homes.
Orange was refused permission by Leeds City Council in the summer to keep its 15m mast on land at Sarsdale Ridge following hundreds of objections from Bardsey home owners.
But despite this refusal, the communications company has now chosen to use temporary planning laws to keep the mast up and it's appealed to The Government Planning Inspectorate in Bristol.
International Relations and Security Network (ISN) (Zurick)
by Shaun Waterman
12/09/08
The last time the US embarked on a major war in the Middle East, in 1990, the legacy included a generation of veterans who were victims of Gulf War Syndrome, and who had to wage a long fight against bureaucracy to get their disease officially acknowledged.Now some fear the latest US war there is also leaving a generation of veterans sick in ways they will have to fight to get recognized and treated for. …. there are fears that a new generation of veterans will face similar official indifference to a new generation of disabling conditions resulting from the unique conditions of their own conflict.In the case of these veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the “invisible wounds” are Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other stress-related conditions...
Foundation for Economic Education
by Robert P. Murphy
12/09/08
On Sunday, September 7, the United States government took control of more than half the U.S. mortgage market, through its seizure—and that is the word used in mainstream press accounts—of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two colossal government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), hybrid organizations owned by private individuals yet created by the government. The likes of this and other recent actions taken by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have not been seen since the 1930s. Will the GSE takeover someday be viewed as a decisive step in bringing state socialism to the United States?
Robert Scheer, Truthdig: "Let the record show that it was George W. Bush, the rich Texas Republican, who brought socialism to America, so don’t blame it on that African-American Chicago Democrat community organizer who made it into the White House. The government takeover of the banking and automobile industries not only happened on President Bush’s watch, it was also the deregulatory mania of this president’s family, beginning with his father, which took this country into such starkly unfamiliar territory."
Until recently, any suggestion that we should prevent corporations from becoming too big to fail was capitalist blasphemy. As the Federal Reserve considers printing money to support more government bailouts, an already old acronym has been reborn: TBTF (Too Big To Fail). In all the discussion of reckless corporate decision-making and financial industry bailouts, there has been little discussion of whether any corporation should be allowed to become TBTF. The global financial system needs retooling. There have even been calls for a Bretton Woods II, but with no consensus on what direction it might take...
The following resolution was passed by the Libertarian National Committee on Dec. 7, 2008 at its quarterly board meeting: RESOLUTION CONDEMNING DOMESTIC DEPLOYMENT OF THE U.S. MILITARY WHEREAS, the domestic deployment of 20,000 uniformed military personnel planned by the United States government undermines the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which forbids the use of the military for domestic policing...
Die Energie- und Klimawochenschau: Führende EU-Politiker klammern sich angesichts der Wirtschaftskrise an überkommene Strukturen, gefährden damit den Klimaschutz und versäumen den Umbau der Industriegesellschaft.
Nach dem Bericht der Gemeinsamen Konferenz Kirche und Entwicklung sind die deutschen Rüstungsexporte im letzten Jahr gegenüber 2006 um 13 Prozent gestiegen.
London-based GFC Economics is making a frightening prediction: By spring 2009, the United States could be facing more than 1 million layoffs every successive month.
New census data shows that throughout the first half of the decade, the slumping economy touched nearly every community in the country. Incomes dropped while poverty and unemployment rose in the vast majority of the nation's cities and towns.
Iraq has gone from an enemy of America to a friend of America, from sponsoring terror to fighting terror, and from a brutal dictatorship to a multi-religious, multi-ethnic constitutional democracy.
George W. Bush promised Tuesday to "do what is necessary" to blunt any terrorist threats originating from suspected extremist havens in Pakistan's remote tribal areas.
Pakistan is a 'failed state', says US Congressman:
Condemning the Mumbai carnage, senior US Congressman Frank Pallone has said the terrorists involved in the attack tried to give the impression that they were local Indian Muslims.
I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US. I have never seen black helicopters hovering in the sky above Montana. But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible.
Gigantism is the handmaiden of modernity, or so we have been led to believe. In literature, future utopias are almost always characterized by a world government, on the grounds that presumably the people of earth have evolved beyond the narrow confines of nationalism and ethno-cultural particularities. Everybody wears a white tunic or body-stocking and flies around on jet-packs. Conversely, literary dystopias habitually depict a world riven by savagery and decentralized politico-economic units, e.g., The Shape of Things to Come, by H.G. Wells, in which an aspiring world government of technocrats battles the medieval remnants of local warlords. ‘We are the world’-ism is rife in liberal circles, and World Federalism has long been a cult, albeit a very small and uninfluential one, on the Left. However, the world government idea is — I predict — going to gain new traction in the coming years, and this is especially on account of the economic crisis currently roiling world markets...
Former Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, a former U.S. prosecutor at Guantanamo, told BBC yesterday in his first interview since resigning earlier this year that Guantanamo detainees were treated in a "wrong, unethical and finally, immoral" manner. Watch BBC's segment.
For an Army officer, criticizing the military commissions at Guantanamo as a perversion of justice probably isn’t the best career move. That goes double if you also happen to be a former top military prosecutor at Gitmo. That’s why Lt. Colonel Darrel Vandeveld, a US army reservist with nearly 20 years of service under his belt, fears the worst when a military promotion board renders its decision in his case this week. Theoretically, the military brass reviewing his record could reward his distinguished service — to which various awards and commendations attest — and bump him up to full-bird colonel. Or, they could derail his military career. Vandeveld has reason to believe the board may attempt the latter — forcing into retirement the officer who, in a July 2009 congressional hearing, declared that ‘the military commission system is broken beyond repair’...
Whether Bush Can Grant His Administration Pre-emptive Pardons on Torture, a Dicey Area of the Law
By Daphne Eviatar
Obama's advisers are encouraging him to look to the future and avoid the appearance of seeking vengeance for past practices. But many legal experts insist it's as important not to let those responsible for diminishing America's moral stature get away scot-free.
The Documentary PBS Does Not Want You to See Before Jan 21, 2009
Video and Transcript
"Torturing Democracy" is a new documentary which details how the government set aside the rule of law in its pursuit of harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists.
If we want to know what torture is, and what it does to human beings, we have to look at it squarely, without flinching. That's just what a powerful and important film, seen by far too few Americans, does.
The western leaders can either choose to remain in denial and send in more troops while listening to pompous civil servants, politicians and diplomats who say only what they think their masters want to hear, or they can sit down and read the ICOS report and act upon it.
Isabel Reynolds, Reuters: "Greenpeace launched a campaign to turn Japan against whaling on Tuesday, with directors of the group from around the world delivering a letter to Prime Minister Taro Aso, urging him to halt the hunts."
Camillo "Mac" Bica, Truthout: "Soldiers are legally obligated to sometimes disobey superior orders. US chief prosecutor Robert K. Jackson at the NMT declared in 1948: '[T]he very essence of the [Nuremberg] Charter is that individuals have intentional duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience imposed by the individual state.'"
Dave Helling and Mike McGraw, The Kansas City Star: "Attorneys general from around the nation are attending professional and political conferences this month - paid for in large part by corporations and lobbyists with potential legal issues in their states. Among those attending, or planning to attend, the sessions: Kansas Attorney General Steve Six and incoming Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, both Democrats. The donors? Drug companies, tobacco firms, alcohol lobbyists, banks, energy companies and labor unions, among others."
Warren Richey, The Christian Science Monitor: "The US Supreme Court this week takes up a case examining whether cabinet-level officials in the Bush White House can be held legally accountable for the administration's controversial tactics in the war on terror. At issue is an attempt to force former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller to stand trial with federal agents, prison guards, and their supervisors. They are all named in a lawsuit filed by a Pakistani man who was held as a terror suspect for five months in solitary confinement in a US prison although there was no evidence connecting him to terrorism."
Frank Ahrens, The Washington Post: "Media giant Tribune Co., saddled with billions in debt since it became a privately held company last year, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Delaware court this afternoon, becoming the first major newspaper or chain to declare bankruptcy in modern history. The move will allow Tribune to stay in business while it seeks better terms from its creditors. The Chicago-based company owns a coast-to-coast empire with television stations and newspapers in most of the nation's largest cities."
Hartz IV – Betroffene klagen an. DVD zum Hartz IV-Tribunal
DGB Hessen hat einen Film produziert, der das Tribunal dokumentiert und anregen will, ähnliche Veranstaltungen zu organisieren. Aus der PM des DGB Hessen: „Auf dem Hartz IV-Tribunal, das Anfang des Jahres im Frankfurter Gewerkschaftshaus stattfand, haben Betroffene anhand realer Einzelfälle das politische System Hartz IV zur Anklage gebracht. Die Jury befand: Hartz IV verletzt das Sozialstaatsgebot. Ein "Fördern" finde kaum statt, Hartz IV wirke als "Hungerpeitsche" zur Billiglohnarbeit, Widerstand sei geboten. Die Veranstaltung war umstritten und hat bundesweit Aufsehen erregt. Das große Interesse hat die Gewerkschafterinnen Angelika Beier (DGB) und Karola Stötzel (GEW) motiviert, das Tribunal in Kooperation mit dem Frankfurter Filmemacher Kristian Fröhlich zu dokumentieren. Der
45-minütige Film zeigt die wichtigsten Passagen des Tribunals und beleuchtet die Widerstände, die das Tribunal beinahe verhindert hätten. Er will die Kritik an Hartz IV in die Öffentlichkeit tragen und dient zugleich als Anleitung für weitere Veranstaltungen dieser Art.“ Siehe dazu:
Vertriebsseite mit Preisen (10 € für Privatpersonen/Initiativen, 15 € für Organisationen) und Flyer- und Plakatebestellung, wenn man den Film vorführen will http://www.arstuff.net/bestellung/index.php
Wohnungspolitische Auswirkungen der Hartz-IV-Gesetzgebung
„Im Schatten der europäischen Wettbewerbsorientierung, die in Deutschland kurz und bündig „Agenda 2010“ genannt wurde, hat die rot-grüne Bundesregierung bis zu ihrer Abwahl 2005 die umfassendsten Einschnitte der Sozialpolitik seit dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs beschlossen. Der Beitrag stellt zunächst die Anwendung der Neuregelung zu den sog. „Kosten der Unterkunft“ in verschiedenen Kommunen dar und untersucht die mit der Sozialreform einhergehenden Veränderungen der Wohnungsversorgung exemplarisch am Beispiel Berlins…“ Artikel von Andrej Holm (pdf) http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/realpolitik/hilfe/holm_buch.pdf
Dieser Beitrag – exklusiv im LabourNet Germany – ist erschienen in dem von Jürgen Klute und Sandra Kotlenga herausgegebenen Buch „Sozial- und Arbeitsmarktpolitik nach Hartz. Fünf Jahre Hartzreformen: Bestandsaufnahme - Analysen – Perspektiven“ (Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2008, ISBN 978-3-940344-33-5, 23,00 EUR). Siehe weitere Informationen und Bestellung beim Universitätsverlag Göttingen http://www.univerlag.uni-goettingen.de/content/list.php?notback=1&details=isbn-978-3-940344-33-5
„Und wenn alles bachab geht? Bauern, Köchinnen und Pfleger braucht es immer. Das Notwendige ist keine Last, weiss Soziologin Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen. Plötzlich ist die alte Frage wieder da: Angenommen, die Krise wird richtig schlimm, auf dem Arbeitsmarkt kracht es, vielleicht bricht sogar der Zahlungsverkehr zusammen - was dann? Was braucht es wirklich zum Leben? Langsam schleicht sich diese lange verdrängte Frage in die Köpfe zurück. So schwierig zu beantworten ist sie gar nicht: Wir brauchen Wärme, Nahrung, Zuwendung; Pflege, wenn wir krank sind, Betreuung für unsere Kinder und Hilfe im Alter. Musik, Geschichten und hin und wieder ein Fest sollte es auch geben, damit das Leben Freude macht…“ Interview von Bettina Dyttrich in der WoZ vom 27.11.2008 http://www.woz.ch/artikel/2008/nr48/absolute%20return/17199.html
Von der Finanzkrise in die 20:80 Gesellschaft. Die Weltwirtschaft befindet sich im freien Fall – wie wird die Gesellschaft mit der zu erwartenden Massenarbeitslosigkeit umgehen?
„Als die Digitale Revolution und die Globalisierung in den 1990er Jahren ihren Siegeszug antraten, sagten Zukunftsforscher den Weg in eine 20:80 Gesellschaft voraus. Nur 20 Prozent der arbeitsfähigen Bevölkerung würden im 21. Jahrhundert ausreichen, um die Weltwirtschaft in Schwung zu halten. 80 Prozent der Bevölkerung wären demnach arbeitslos und müssten mit „Tittytainment“ bei Laune gehalten werden. Da die Ursachen für diese Entwicklung weniger im globalen Handel, als vielmehr im technischen Fortschritt liegen, wird die kommende Weltwirtschaftskrise ein Beschleuniger für diese Entwicklung sein. Konzepte, wie unsere Gesellschaft mit der kommenden Massenarbeitslosigkeit umgehen soll, gibt es allerdings wenige und weder Politik noch Wirtschaft scheinen ein Interesse daran zu haben, sich den Fragen der Zukunft bereits jetzt zu stellen…“ Artikel von Jens Berger in telepolis vom 09.12.2008 http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/29/29286/1.html
Hieraus unser Zitat des Tages:
„Das Ende der Arbeit kann für die Menschheit einen großen Sprung nach vorn bedeuten. Wir müssen ihn aber auch wagen“
Jeremy Rifkin
Von der Krise zur Katastrophe. Die eigentliche Wahrheit hinter der
Verstaatlichung der „Citigroup“
„Wie mir Bankiers, mit denen ich seit Jahren in Kontakt stehe und die zu
den Insidern der Finanzwelt gehören, berichtet haben, stand die Welt am
21. November, unmittelbar vor dem schlimmsten Finanzkollaps der
Geschichte. Auslöser war die „Citigroup“, noch vor zwei Jahren die größte
Bank in ganz Amerika…“ Artikel von ´ in NRhZ-Online -
Neue Rheinische Zeitung, Online-Flyer vom 04. Dezember 2008
Until recently, the wizards of Wall Street believed they had abolished — or at least ‘managed’ — risk so well that they could turn the global economy into a casino. By playing the roles of both the gambler and the house, they were always guaranteed to come out the winner. In the process, they borrowed deeply and redoubled their bets, multiplying the risk inherent in a capitalist economy. It worked for a while. In 2007, the financial sector reaped 40 percent of all U.S. corporate profits, as debt-driven speculation proliferated in a dizzying array of financial devices...
President-elect Barack Obama has promised to jolt the American economy out of its depressionary spiral with the mother of all fiscal stimuli. While Mr. Obama seems to have little choice in this policy matter, his desperate gambit has a high probability of failure — and may make the recession worse. Don’t believe the Washington chorus: We can’t spend our way to economic recovery. Though politically unpalatable, the wiser approach would be to let economic nature take its course. Such tough love, while painful, is the surest way to a healthy recovery in both jobs and asset prices. Obama’s choices are very limited, in part because US monetary policy is broken...
Während man in Deutschland über ein zweites Konjunkturprogramm mit Investitionen, Konsumgutscheinen oder Steuersenkungen nachdenkt, scheint die Mehrwertsteuersenkung in Großbritannien nichts zu bewirken.
Ben Adler, The New Republic: "In the weeks leading up to Election Day, the hand-wringing over voting irregularities reached a fever pitch. Rolling Stone published a feature by Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., warning that Republicans may have already stolen the election. The McCain campaign highlighted accusations that the civil rights group ACORN was trying to commit voter fraud by fabricating voter registrations. Voting rights groups sent nearly daily e-mail blasts to reporters obsessing over every state and local incident of voter intimidation or suppression. And yet after Election Day, the stories seemed to have vanished. What happened?"
Robert Pear, The New York Times: "As jobless numbers reach levels not seen in 25 years, another crisis is unfolding for millions of people who lost their health insurance along with their jobs, joining the ranks of the uninsured. About 10.3 million Americans were unemployed in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of unemployed has increased by 2.8 million, or 36 percent, since January of this year, and by 4.3 million, or 71 percent, since January 2001."
Tiffany Gabbay, Cybercast News Service: "Environmental groups say consumers want to buy cars that get 50 miles per gallon and they want electric vehicles - but Big Three automakers don't want to have to produce them. When asked why the Big Three - Ford, GM and Chrysler LLC - should be forced to make cars that the automakers say there is no demand for, Mike Tidwell of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network claimed that the market actually wants environment-friendly vehicles."
Michael Breen, The Christian Science Monitor: "For a platoon leader on the streets of Iraq, a trusted interpreter can be the difference between a successful patrol and a body bag. At great personal risk, interpreters bridge the language gap, guide soldiers and Marines through unfamiliar streets, serve as cultural advisers, and make crucial introductions. Unfortunately, the same US military that depends on them has needlessly placed Iraqi interpreters and their families in jeopardy. For the past several months, commanders in Baghdad enforced an ill-considered policy prohibiting Iraqi interpreters from wearing masks to conceal their identities while on patrol."
Del Quentin Wilber, The Washington Post: "Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards charged in the shooting deaths of 14 Iraqi civilians last year turned themselves in to federal authorities in Salt Lake City this morning, according to their attorneys, and the Justice Department unsealed a 35-count indictment against them. The five guards were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Washington in connection with the shooting, which occurred September 16, 2007, in Baghdad's bustling Nisoor Square."
BBC News: "US guards indicted over the 2007 fatal shooting of 17 Iraqis used machine guns and grenade launchers against unarmed civilians, prosecutors have said. The guards, from the US security firm Blackwater, were contracted to defend US diplomats. The firm says its guards acted in self-defence."
Trump and His Allies...
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/21/trump-and-his-allies-are-clear-and-present-danger-american-democracy?utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter_op
rudkla - 22. Jun, 05:09
The Republican Party...
https://truthout.org/articles/the-republican-party-is-still-doing-donald-trumps-bidding/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=804d4873-50dd-4c1b-82a5-f465ac3742ce
rudkla - 26. Apr, 05:36
January 6 Committee Says...
https://truthout.org/articles/jan-6-committee-says-trump-engaged-in-criminal-conspiracy-to-undo-election/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=552e5725-9297-4a7c-a214-53c8c51615a3
